Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-08-20

! more than small proportion of the land
granted. The payment of the costs of sur
Veylng, selecting and conveying being a
condition precedent TO the issue of patents.
would involve large expenditure on the
part OF the company upon each list of Sc
lectlons made. In the aggregate. a very
large sum of the company's money is now
tied up by these payments, and in view of
| the tardiness of the Governmental response
TO the demands of the company for patents
a delinquency which is clearly set forth in
the accompanying documents, there is
nothing to encourage, but rather everything
to discourage, activity under this head.
During every period of the administration
oil the land department of the company it
has been apparent that the augmentation
OF lists of selections retarded rather than
promoted the issuing of patents, and the
completion of these lists and their presen-
tation to the General Land Office at Wash
ingion involved large expenditure of the
company's money, which, while the COM
pany was deprived of its use, remained idle
and useless IN the Government Treasury.
The task of completing the surveys of
the vast area of unsuryeyed land, and the
COST OF making such surveys, which must
be borne by the Government ITSELF were
all difficulties which confronted the Gov
eminent, and to which is referable the
policy OF vesting the company with the
right to make demand for patent only as
prompted by its own requirements, or the
progress OF settlement and consequent &C.
cupation and absorption of the lands
granted. The provision of the granting
Act herein referred to was clearly sug-
gested to the Congressional mind in the
interest of the Government ITSELF and ex-
actly supplemented the rights, convent
ences and interests of both the grantor
| and the grantee. In practice, however,
1t has conserved the interests of the Gov
eminent more than those of the company
In all cases the delay in the issue of
patents to the company has been loss to
the companys treasury. 1t has retarded
the growth and development of the country
tributary to the line of transportation con-
structed, and it has subjected the settler
upon lands granted to the. railroad COM
pany to inconvenience and loss arising
out OF delay in receiving title to his land
1t mas delayed the payment of money
to the company for the purchase
OF such lands, and beyond all this,
1t has been the occasion of much
loss by reason of the extension of the dis
covery of mineral within the granted limits.
This latter feature deserves more than pass
ing notice. Under the decisions of the Su-
preme Court lands patented to the COM
pany, and not known to be mineral at the
time OF the issuance of patents, pass the
mineral with the title conveyed, while the
discovery of valuable mineral deposits in
the lands prior to the issue of patents ex-
cepts the land in which such mineral is
discovered from the operation of the grant.
Within large section of the granted
limits search for valuable mineral deposits
has been arduous and constant Mineral
discoveries tharafora hau Il
extending, and as they were extended,
they operate to except out of the grant
large quantities of valuable land which
would have been patented by reason of the
absence of mineral indications and mineral
discoveries at the time application was
made. Ascertainment OF the quantity of
land thus listed to the company would be
very tedious task. Approximations
however, have been made, and the result
OF such approximations justify the state
ment that at least 200 900 acres of land have
been lost to the company in this way.
GOVERNMENTAL POLICY
The policy of the Government with re-
spect Of the disposition of the even-num-
bered sections within the granted limits
has been very iniudicious to the interests of
your company. As soon as the granting
Act was passed, the price fixed upon the
even-numbered sections within the granted
limits was raised to double minimum valu.
alton, thus discouraging the operation of
the presumption laws within the granted
limits. The effect of the land policy of the
Government as compared with the land
policy of the railroad company is clearly
shown by the fact that in townships of
land where patents could be obtained, and
where settlement has been made, settle
ment was begun and prosecuted upon rail-
road land alone. Recently prepared stats
tics concerning lands within the better set
tied portions of the grant show that more
than twice the quantity of railroad land is
being cultivated by actual settlers than of
Government land within the same bounda-
ries. Your company has addressed itself
assiduously to the task of inducing settle
ment upon its lands, and by liberal pol
icy, embracing in Its features low prices,
long extensions of credit at low rates of in
terest, has largely accomplished its great
mission of extending settlement and civil
ization along its line of road On the con-
trary, the policy of the Government relat-
ing to the disposition of its lands, inter-
spersed with the lands granted. has been
rigid, and many of its requirement are not
adapted to the development of the country.
The unwisdom of its policy is particularly
noticeable in the grazing areas on the great
upllfted plateau lying between the Rocky
and Sierra Nevada ranges of mountains
The limitations OF acquiring only 100 acres
to each actual settler, applicable only to
such agricultural land as by reason of fer
tility makes that quantity suited to the in
dustry of a single occupant, is not applica-
BILE to grazing lands. The general result of
this has already been stated. Settlement
has been chiefly upon lands granted to the
railroad.
SUMMARY OF POINTS.
To summarize briefly the points herein
presented. it has been clearly shown:
First-That by the terms of the granting
Act itself the cost of surveying, selecting
and conveying the land was made con-
dition precedent to the issue of patents, and
that such cost was to be paid only as title
was required by the grantee.
Second-That the company has used due
diligence in the payment of costs of sur
veying, selecting and conveying the lands,
and that its diligence in this regard has re-
suited in demand largely in excess of the
response of the Government at every period
in the history of this transaction
Third-That all apparent delay in the
issue of record title to the lands granted to
the Central Pacific Railroad Company is
chargeable to the hardness of the Govern
ment and not to the company.
Fourth-That the Government has at no
time been in a position to grant patents
conveying the title to large granted areas
by reason of the absence of surveys and
the unavoidable delays in determining
questions of law and fact as to whether
lands applied for were granted or excepted
out of the grant.
Fifth-That the company has been SUBJ
jected to great pecuniary loss, growing out
of the payment of COSTS of surveys and
other attendant fees upon large lists of
lands for which no patents have been
granted, and the loss of the use of moneys
which would have been paid by the pur-
chasers of lands had the response of the
Government been commensurate with the
legitimate demands of the company
Sixth-That arbitrary and obstructive
rules of practice have recently been de-
vised multiplying the efforts of the company
to facilitate the completion of lists of selec-
tons, and unnecessarily complicating the
perfection of lists, whereby even greater
hardness in the response of the Government
to the demands of the company than has
heretofore been exhibited may be ex-
pected.
Seventh-That the delinquency of the
Government and its tardihess in responding
to the requirements of the company have
at all times acted as discouragementst to ap-
plications for patents and